I recently asked my Facebook followers how much they spend on groceries and boy, was that a popular question with over 3,000 responses! I suppose inquiring minds want to know. Many of the responses ranged from $100 to $300 a week (for a family of four), with the majority coming in closer to the $150 to $250 mark. How much do you spend (and for how many people)? I’d love to get your input plus any useful tips on how you stick to it in the comments below!
If you’re trying to get your family on a weekly or monthly grocery budget (that you can actually stick to) a great place to start is by adding up how much you currently spend on food (at the grocery store, farmers’ market, eating out, etc.). You can do this by calculating a weekly or monthly average based on credit card statements over the last six months. Personally, I think a weekly budget is easier to follow because you can’t go too far over budget before you realize you’re in trouble.
Is there an app for that? Yes, of course!
I then asked what everyone’s favorite apps (and websites) were for grocery shopping and budget tracking, and these were some of the most popular answers.
- EveryDollar (by Dave Ramsey): Free (with ads) or $99/year for bank syncing
EveryDollar follows the zero-based budget approach recommended by top personal money-management expert Dave Ramsey. Available for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch or Android devices.
– - YNAB (You Need a Budget): Free 34-day trial then $50/year
Bank syncing, goal tracking plus debt management software all accessible in real-time from any device. Available for iPhone/iPad and Android devices.
– - Out of Milk: Free
Shopping list app for creating and sharing shopping lists with friends and family. Available for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch. and Android devices.
– - Mint: Free (with ads)
Create budgets, track and pay bills, monitor your credit score and more. Available for iPhone/iPad and Android devices.
– - Flipp: Free
Matches digital weekly circulars from over 800 local retailers with coupons from the brands you love so you can find the best deals in your community every week. There is a shopping list feature as well. Available for iPhone/iPad and Android devices.
I hope these help make it easier for you to you stay on track going forward. If I missed any good ones, please share with us in the comments! :)
We usually spend anywhere from $80-$150 a week. Usually averaging $120. We eat out 1-2 times a week. We are a family of 4. I always make a list of what groceries we need and I put a few items that we could use, but could also do without. I sometimes will approximate prices on each of the items and estimate my total before I leave the house. That way when I’m deciding if I need that extra bag of chocolate chips, I think twice and usually put the unnecessary items back onto the shelf.
Since I only eat for one, I currently spend about $60 a week which includes pet supplies/household supplies etc. I only eat out approx 2 times a week and tend to eat very simply, Focusing on whole foods. ie: eggs, cereals, oats, homemade muffins, fruits, vegetables, sandwiches, nut butters, cheese, tuna. I no longer buy wine/beer, so that is a major money saver..whew :-).. I can also find 1/2 price salads that are great as well…I also check the marked down canned items and stock up when I can on items such as organic soups, natural sodas and veggies. I have learned a lot from 100 days..such as “Eat what you have, then buy something new”. It really does save time and money. My food waste is almost zero.
We spend between $100-$125 per week for a family of 8. We don’t eat out, I meal plan, make a grocery list and stick with it. I shop at Aldi’s almost exclusively and only go to a bigger store if there’s something they don’t carry.
I would LOVE to know how you do that! Would you mind sharing a sample meal plan and grocery list?
I actually got the meal plans and grocery lists from this website! If you sign up for the newsletters, they will email them to you for free. There’s 5 of them. I printed them out and keep all of the papers inside of a plastic page protector. I rotate through the 5 weeks so we’re not always having the same things and whatever week I’m on I just put that grocery list in the front and use a dry erase marker to mark off what I’ve picked up already. When I’m done shopping for the week, I put the menu on the top and tack it up to my cork board. It keeps everything organized for me. I hope that helps!
The only changes I’ve made to any of her meal plans is if she said to have an apple for a snack and they had pears on sale for the week. I have swapped out produce she listed for their produce picks of the week as long as it didn’t effect any recipes. You can save a ton of money that way because their sale produce for the week is usually marked down close to 50%. Also, don’t let what people say about the produce scare you. They have a double money back guarantee so if you were to get something that was bad, they replace it AND give you your money back. If you have any questions, please let me know!
Thanks for the advice! I will check deeper into it!
We are a family of 8 and I typically spend about $250/week. We are a military family so I shop the commissary, which helps a lot, and farmers markets. We live in Belgium so prices vary from US a bit. I know I could do better if I planned a bit more. I always thought we spent too much but since we spend the same (if not a little less) then smaller families were doing ok.
For 8 people in Europe, that’s not bad at all. I’m originally from the UK. Food is way more expensive in the UK and most of mainland Europe. Like gas. :-)
I have been using MealBoard for about 3 years now and have really enjoyed it. It is MUCH cheaper than the options you suggested and provides a lot more than just a shopping list. You can plan your meals for weeks in advance, keep inventory of your pantry, edit the stores you frequent and plug in prices (if you want to go that far), you can sync your grocery list with your spouse in case they happen to be going by the grocery store and you can add notes to that list, you can import loads of recipes manually or through the internet so you’re not flipping through cookbooks and you can also set up notifications for a specific recipe to remind you to pull out meat from the freezer, you can scale recipes up and the measurements will automatically adjust. I use it every day. You can also email recipes directly from the app to a friend you think might enjoy the recipe. We eat out maybe once or twice every other week and as a family of three we spend about $70-200 a week or bi-weekly. We have also had a garden regularly with fresh vegetables and herbs and that saves a lot of money!